My former employer Deploy Solutions was acquired by Kronos today. Although it must be very hard for my friends at Deploy to relinquish their autonomy, I think this move is wise for both parties — and Deploy CEO Nicole Stata always told me that, "she would not be left in the corner without a dance partner."

This acquisition combined with the recent acquisition of Unicru (another leading ATS for hourly workers) positions Kronos as a solid leader in the hourly recruiting space. This is certainly a roll-up play in the dynamic HCM space giving Kronos claim to some of the largest hourly employers like Home Depot, BestBuy, Securitas, and IKEA.

Yesterday was the first day of Unisys’ Logistics Executive Conference in Nice, France, with client companies such as AirCanada, Air France-KLM, DHL, Delta Air Lines, and IATA meeting to discuss leading practices in air cargo management and information technology. Topics ranged from RFID and other tracking technologies to revenue management and next-generation logistics management systems. Technology innovation was the buzz word in many presentations, and a number of leading practices notably align with Forrester’s vision of dynamic business applications (apps which are “designed for people, built for change”). For example:

Avner Schneur, President and CEO of Emptoris, opened its User Conference in Boston by describing the challenges of global supply chains with particular emphasis on the risks, illustrated by Mattel's recall of toys sourced from China due to excessive lead in the paint. Announcing Emptoris 7, the latest release of its ePurchasing suite, Mr. Schneur explained the need for procurement professionals to move eSourcing beyond simply reducing cost and address issues of performance and compliance. He also stressed the need to extend Supplier Performance Monitoring into Supplier Development. "Mattel would not have had its lead problem had it been using our product" he asserted.

Yesterday was the first day of Dassault Systemes (DS) Annual Industry Analyst Event, and I had the opportunity to catch up with executive leaders across the company’s spectrum of PLM product brands (Catia, Solidworks, Enovia, Delmia, Simulia, and most recently, 3DVia). CEO Bernard Charles set a visionary tone by laying out DS plans to enable “true collaboration where people virtually image, share, and experiment” in three-dimensional technology. This vision has propelled the creation of the company’s newest brand, 3DVia — an online community where consumers can create and share lifelike 3D images and animations. It’s certainly a bold and interesting move by DS and it holds the potential to fuel a wave of growth beyond the mature PLM space, but there are lots of questions and implications in shifting from a core industrial customer-base to a consumer-oriented online marketplace. How will DS differentiate in a whole new landscape of customers and competitors? How will they simplify their complex 3D design tools for the everyday layman? How will the online subscription model evolve to promote networking and adoption while still capturing profits?

SAP made a major departure from its "tuck-in" strategy with the October 7 announcement of its agreement to acquire Business Object for 4.8 billion (Euro). On the surface, the deal makes sense from the standpoint of marrying business intelligence (BI) technology with ERP applications. The deal is surprising in the sense that SAP has long insisted that its growth strategy is organic and that it would not make major acquisitions to gain market share. The Business Objects deal is by far the largest SAP acquisition to date, comparable in scope to Oracle’s acquisitions of PeopleSoft, Siebel and Hyperion.

Price optimization in financial services firms is slowly,
but surely, moving towards relationship based pricing — and the UK is clearly ahead of the US.

The second annual Profit-Based Pricing Forum was held in
Camberley, Surrey — just outside of London, on September 26th and 27th, 2007. Sponsored by Nomis
Solutions, a profit-based pricing vendor specializing in financial services,
the attendance was more than double that of last year. Representatives from all
the large financial organizations in the UK, as well as from consultant and
motor finance firms comprised this growing audience.

So what’s new in price optimization? Frankly, it’s been a fact
of life for several years in the UK [even if the financial
institutions (FIs) may only be “dabbling” in it, as one attendee noted]. However
Forrester estimates that fewer than 25% of the top 100 US banks and lenders are using this
strategy now. It is focused almost exclusively on lending products, with little
attention currently to deposit products. But we heard more about
relationship-based pricing at this conference than any such meeting to date. UK lenders have begun to identify the challenges and barriers — technological as
well as cultural — to getting there. It’s a start!